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About this blog: Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I lived in high-density housing and experienced transit-oriented services first hand. During high school and college summers I worked in Manhattan drafting tenant floor plans for high-rise office buildi... (More)

About this blog: Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I lived in high-density housing and experienced transit-oriented services first hand. During high school and college summers I worked in Manhattan drafting tenant floor plans for high-rise office buildings. This could have been a career option, but my interest in computers - unusual at the time - led me to the computer science program at the University of Wisconsin. A programming job on Page Mill Road brought me to Palo Alto after college. Since 1993 I consult on bridging law and technology, and serve as an expert witness in Intellectual Property litigation. We moved to Menlo Park's Linfield Oaks neighborhood in 1994. Neighborhood traffic issues motivated my initial volunteering as a Menlo Park Planning Commissioner, followed by a stint as a Chamber of Commerce board member and most recently a finance/audit committee member. I advocate community volunteering for meeting people, the neighborhoods, and understanding the myriad issues that somehow arise. As hobbies I collect contemporary art and vintage cameras. And? fly helicopters, which offer rare views of the nooks and crannies of the Bay Area. (Hide)

Denmark Stumbles

Uploaded: Feb 11, 2014

I've long had an affinity for Denmark, even taking 3 years of Danish in college and visiting 3 times. And Palo Alto hosts a local diplomatic outpost  the Denmark Center for Innovation on Page Mill Road. So I've always had a positive feeling when it came land of Hamlet. Until now.

I was astounded and saddened to see the video of a beautiful, healthy giraffe killed by the Copenhagen Zoo this week. Autopsied, chopped up for food for other carnivores at the zoo, in plain site of the public including children. I still don't understand the reasons proffered  to preclude inbreeding  couldn't have an alternate plan.

They absolutely could've looked for an alternative home for the giraffe, and I wish they had. Still, I think the reaction about this is excessive. While not common in Denmark, giraffes are not threatened in Africa. Therefore, was this much worse than, say, killing a steer? They fed the giraffe to lions. I'm sure, if they had not eaten the giraffe, the zookeeper would've fed other meat to the lions; it still would've been a lost life.

They slaughtered the giraffe publicly, but I think the audience knew what was about to happen; parents could have protected their children from the sight. However disturbing, I don't think they were any more inhumane to the giraffe than a beef ranch is to a steer. You could argue there is something "more honest" about doing this publicly, than hiding the fact they lions require meat, and meat comes from dead animals.

So - it was shocking; but not that different from what already goes on. It's just that people were paying attention.

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